Chapter 733: Phase 4

Chapter 733: Phase 4

[PHASE 4 HAS BEGUN]

Upon successfully eliminating an academy, the eliminating academy will receive all Academy Points of the defeated academy.

Phase 4 will continue indefinitely until only TWO academies remain.

The Academy having the most points at the end of this phase will be declared the winner of the strategic warfare and receive 1 Master Point.

An Academy needs to score 2 out of 3 Master Points to be declared the winner of the Competition.

Points scored in the 4 phases can be used to revive teammates and buy strategic tools and equipment.

A moment of silence fell across the battlefield as everyone read the text and absorbed its implications.

"Crap..." Uraan muttered.

Didn’t this mean the dragons could revive all 7 people they had eliminated?

But after reading the announcement, Leo’s attention shifted back to the summoning crystal in his hand.

He gripped it tightly.

Elven Empress... damn it! He realised that the beast core of Vorthuun would be used to resurrect the Spirit Beast, and this was what the summoning crystal was for.

And of course, no one other than the Elven Empress was capable of doing it.

Inside the stronghold, Fruder quickly figured things out. An emergency meeting was called.

"Sir Leo, if points can be used to revive the defeated students, I bet the dragons won’t target us first. They will use the opportunity to get into the best shape before challenging us!"

"In other words, they will target Velerath and Elarion first to score as many points as possible before the phase ends," Kaelion completed.

"Then it will be best for us to defeat those academies first, or better, directly strike the Sunborn Stronghold!" Though Fruder said that, it was simply not possible.

Everybody was tired, including Lily. Leo was comparatively fine with his monstrous stamina, but even his mana reserves had been reduced to nearly half, which was simply not enough to challenge the dragon who must have that Pseudo 5-Star summoning card.

And even if they used their own summoning card, it was still a risky endeavour.

The easier path would be to destroy the other strongholds so they couldn’t score more points than they already had.

In fact, the dragons might already be on their way to destroy one of the academies.

Only 5 minutes had passed since Phase 3 ended, so if they acted quickly, they could take out at least 1 academy.

When they looked at the map, Velerath was closer to the dragons, while Elarion was closer to Aurelius. This gave them an obvious target: Elarion Royal Academy.

But the question was, who would attack them?

The other top 10 students were simply incapable after this tiring phase.

"Well, I have been lazing around most of the time; I am in." Tavian raised his hand. He also needed to raise his contribution score, so he participated.

"If it’s the elves, I think they will be easier to handle than the dragons. Even I can manage," Lily said.

"I can also go. I have been only riding Sir Uraan’s beast most of the time. And my mana reserves also replenish faster since I am an elf." Sylrael also joined.

Her presence was mandatory, naturally, because her [Unity Resonance] talent boosted everyone’s recovery even further.

"B-but we even need someone strong here in case of the slim chance the dragons come here..." Fruder hesitantly added, afraid that he might be scolded for technically calling the others weak.

At that, Leo handed him the summoning crystal.

"This will buy us quite a bit of time to return if they really attack."

Suddenly, Leo recalled another one.

"Oh! Niri can also join in. Isn’t their stronghold deep in the forest with huge trees? She has the exact skill we need."

Saying that, he summoned Niri.

"Papa!"

She instantly darted toward Leo the moment she appeared and hugged him.

"Did you forget about me?" she asked with a pout, looking up at him with cute eyes.

Before Leo could even say anything, she looked around and spotted Lily.

"Mama!"

She then hugged her from behind and snuggled against her.

"Papa bad, he forgets about me!" she said, pointing at Leo accusingly with her small hands.

While Niri kept accusing Leo of forgetting her, an uproar had started outside the realm in the stadium, especially among the elves after the host revealed that Niri was a Dryad who had attained the perfect humanoid form.

Even Cyrandel was no exception after she carefully analysed Niri’s appearance.

"Louis! Bring me there!"

Louis snapped his fingers, and Cyrandel appeared in the Emperor’s chamber. She and Aurex were not actually present at the scene, so they couldn’t read things properly, nor were they that interested in doing so.

But right now, Cyrandel needed to read things carefully. Not just carefully, but down to the tiniest detail.

She made Louis open a crack in the secret realm so she could assert her authority and examine things properly.

"A Royal... no way..." she muttered in utter shock.

"Is something the matter? We have already seen another Royal Beast with him; this shouldn’t be a surprise, right?" Aurex asked, unsure what was so special about Cyrandel reacting like that.

Louis seemed to have an idea, but he wasn’t sure. Just because Leo tamed a Dryad shouldn’t shock Cyrandel this much, right?

"Louis, do you know whether they have some kind of special soul treasure that allowed them to advance their soul ranks, if that happened at all?"

Louis frowned. He had no such information.

"I am not aware of whether it exists..." Then something clicked.

"Wait, is this Dryad some kind of special beast that was personally birthed by a treasure with an extremely high potential?"

Cyrandel just remained silent, showing that she wasn’t sure.

"I mean, if you are not aware... then they surely don’t have the treasure, even if it was there originally. And without the treasure, the high potential collapses," she muttered.

She looked at Niri, who seemed to be very close to Leo and Lily.

"She seemed to see them as parents... I mean, it’s good. I guess my citizens won’t be that mad when they learn Lily has elven blood and is in a relationship with Leo."

Though she internally thought something else.

This Dryad has a much higher bloodline than it should, given that treasure... there’s no way the treasure shouldn’t still be around.

She secretly glanced toward Louis.

Is he hiding something from me? But he shouldn’t know how a World Tree is born...